Carmen's First Job Sisterhood Of Traveling Pants
by ScorpiaS
Summary: Carmen's friends have all had jobs before REAL jobs, not like babysitting. But when Carmen gets hired, it's not what she expected... R


The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants- Carmen's First Job  
  
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Everyone one of my friends has had a job- Lena, at a store where practically all moms buy (boring) clothing. Tibby- at Wallman's. And Bridget, who worked for her Grandma, but still, it WAS a job. I'm the only one who hasn't had one yet, and now, this summer, I have no choice. Well, I have a choice, but I want to make some money, and I do not mean babysitting. Ok, babysitting is a job, but I mean a REAL job, like at a store or something. All my best friends are off on their adventures, (Bridget with her Grandma again, Lena in Greece, visiting Kostos and his new family (poor Lena), and Tibby with Brian on some Photography Tour or whatever.)   
  
So, I looked through the newspapers. The only openings were at a dollar store, "Valley Vids" video rentals, and at the mall in a perfume shop, but that was too long a distance for me to walk to. So, I decided on "Valley Vids." I haven't been in there since... actually, I have never been there before. My mom went to get a movie once, but I didn't go along. We go to Blockbuster usually. So, I called.   
  
"Valley Vids Video Rentals." A raspy female voice answered.  
  
"Yeah, um, hi, my name is Carmen, and I saw you had an opening?"  
  
"Uh, you're gonna have to speak to Charlie 'bout that one, hun." I heard the phone being set down and then the woman shouting out for Charlie.  
  
"Yeah." A low voice came on.   
  
"I'm Carmen and I..."  
  
"Yeah, I know, about the opening. Yeah, it's still available. You got the job?"  
  
I thought about it for a sec. "Don't you need my information?"  
  
"Come down tomorrow at noon. We'll figure it out." He hung up, and left me there, not sure if this was the right job pick.  
  
The next day I woke up at 11 so I could get ready and look good for a first impression. (I usually sleep late)  
  
I walked down to the store. When I got there, I wasn't impressed. The outside wasn't attractive at all. It didn't make you want to even touch a movie in that store. As I walked in a bell jingled from the door, and every step I took made a creak. I looked at my surroundings. Peeling walls, crooked shelves, which were, as I noticed, horribly painted. The smell wasn't inviting, either. I spotted the counter and walked up to it, where a woman, in her 40's or so, was reading a magazine and chewing bubblegum. She looked up when I stepped up to the counter. "Ah, hi, er.. Carrie, Charlie's waitin' for ya." She walked through a small door and then a bald, obese man stepped out and inspected her. "Okay Carmen, here are some papers you need to fill out and your mom's gotta sign 'em here," he pointed to a blank, "and here." That's it? He called me down to give me some papers. This is how he "figured it out?" I nodded and took the papers. As I turned around to walk back, I noticed worse things about the place, like how the carpet was an ugly color and the movies were covered with dust. How were these people in business?  
  
After I had filled out all the "paperwork," Mom signed it, and looked at me with concern. "Are you sure you're up to this, Carmen? I know you're responsible, but taking on a job an amount of hours day is a lot to handle, don't you think?" I sighed. Moms. "Yeah, yeah." She drove me down, and when she parked she had remembered what this place was like again. "Carmen, are you sure.." I knew she was trying to convince me out of this but I didn't let her. I was out of the car before she could finish and into the store, where I gave the papers to Charlie. "K, kiddo, wanna start tomorrow?" I hate it when people call me kiddo, but I let it pass. "Sure. What times?" He told me I had to work from noon to six, which was not that bad.Oh well. 7 bucks an hour, not bad for a video store.  
  
I worked at Valley Vids for only a week before I was sick of the smell and sight of it. I walked into Charlie's "office."  
  
"Charlie, about 2 to 4 people come in here a day. How do you keep in business? This place looks like crap."   
  
He didn't look shocked.  
  
"I have another store, but I don't run it, my brother does. It sells well. This is just an extra, I guess."   
  
I was sort of mad how he didn't care about what a wreck this was in. But then I had an idea.  
  
"Charlie, how about you close it for a couple of weeks, and let me renovate it.. make it worth paying me to stand here all day. You'll get more people, I can bet you that."  
  
After a couple of minutes, I had talked him through it. He closed early that day, and left. I had asked him to.  
  
At first I started dusting the movies and shelves and things, (actually, un-dusting is more like it.) I peeled off the horrid wallpaper on some of the walls. I tried washing the stains out from the carpet, and they got out easily (most of them). That night I went home, and talked to mom about my idea.  
  
"Where will you get the money for all this?"  
  
"Well, I was hoping you could, you know, lend some, and when I'm working again I'll pay you back."   
  
But Mom didn't have to do that. Charlie called that night and told me I could use the money from the store's income.   
  
For about 2 weeks, I had cleaned the whole store, tidied Charlie's office, re-painted the walls a nice cream color, replaced the carpet, fixed up and painted the shelves, and bought new lamps and lights, but also bought a scented basket, which stood by the cash register. My mom helped me too, since I couldn't have done ALL of it alone. The carpet was now a soothing creamy orange, matching with the light walls. The shelves were a little darker than the walls, but lighter than the carpet. The store smelled of fresh fruit and flowers, the counter looked neat, since I re-organized it. I also, with a little help from some computer guy, re-did the way Charlie kept track of the videos, and ordered some DVD's and new releases to come in.   
  
Mom and I, after the new movies had come in, had painted the outside of the store the color of the shelves. The store was connected to other buildings, and it wasn't very large, so we had to be careful where we painted. In the window display, we put up posters of the new movies that were in, and put displays of fake popcorn and etc., to decorate it a bit. We hired a company to make a new "Valley Vids Video Rentals" sign, which looked MUCH better than the old one. After the store was set, we ordered candy. Tons of it. Candy and popcorn and a soda machine. When they came, we used the shelves in front of the counter to put them, and set the soda machine by the counter also. There was a bubblegum machine we got at a discount from a store that was closing up.  
  
Luckily, the building had a bathroom. We had fixed it up after we had finished everything else. Bought a new toilet seat, painted the walls, bought soap, a new mirror, and a fresh fruity scent similar to the one of the store. The sink was fine except for the grime around it, which we easily removed.   
  
And, in 3 weeks time, we were done. Finished. And we had spent almost all of the money that the store had recieved. But to me, I think it was worth it. This store, in my opinion, was the most attractive on the block. On Monday morning after the bathroom had been cleaned, I flipped the new "open" sign on the door, and led Charlie inside. He was amazed. He looked at every single detail, and he didn't say a word the whole time. But I could tell, he wasn't expecting this.   
  
My mom was with me, and she was happy. After he had looked at everything, he looked at me as if I was an angel. "I don't know what to say. But I can say this: You're getting a raise, 10 dollars an hour. Right after we go back to business and the money starts coming in, you better expect it."  
  
The first customer was a lady with two small children. She had obviously been here before, because she looked as if she was in heaven when she walked in with her screaming toddlers. There was a small play center now, with picture books and a tiny T.V. that played a kid's movie. She rented a new release that I had ordered, for the kids, and another one for herself. "Did you do all this?" she had asked me. I nodded and smiled. I was proud of myself. So was Mom. The lady kept complimenting me, and I bet she had went and told her friends afterwards because we had people coming in by the dozens. As Charlie promised, I did get my raise. The woman with the raspy voice, Wilma, worked here too, after I had gone home. We took turns cleaning the bathroom and dusting the shelves.   
  
I was in the newspaper, the town one that is, but it was a small column, the kind where you have to read the whole page to see it. I still loved it anyway. Tibby and Brian had come back a day after the "grand opening," and they were impressed. Mostly Tibby, but, hey, she's my best friend! When all the girls got back from their trips, they were too. I had taken "before and after" photos, and hung them up on the wall above the bubblegum machine. I always got compliments from customers.  
  
I had to cut my hours when school started, but I got 7 bucks an hour, like when I started, which worked fine for me. My first job was a success. Lena and Tibby never did anything like this on their first jobs! 


End file.
